Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School principal Steven Nixon presented a final draft of his $16.9 million budget for next year to a school subcommittee this week. The budget is a two per cent increase over last year.

The subcommittee voted to preliminarily recommend the budget to the full high school committee Monday night.

The budget includes some reduced spending, including a plan to phase out the early childhood education program in the vocational department. The line item for the program will be reduced this year by $11,000. The program will not accept new students starting next year.

There are currently six students in the program and one teacher. Mr. Nixon said he expects the program will take one to two and a half years to wind down.

No other programs will be cut.

Increases can be tracked largely to salary line items. New positions for next year include an emotional behavioral coordinator ($78,200) and added special education assistants (the line item goes from $61,200 to $247,700). Individual education plan expenses also increased from $50,000 to $85,000 to accommodate specific needs of special education students.

Salary line items in the math and science departments also went up due to contractual changes, budget reorganization and a new part-time math teacher.

At the high school district committee meeting Monday night, school finance manager Mark Friedman said he is expecting a $100,000 shortfall this year, primarily due to lower reimbursements from the state for the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. Mr. Friedman said there is still time to make adjustments.

Committee members read a first draft of a state-mandated head injury policy. School nurse Linda Leonard said the policy has been in effect four years, but the state now requires it in writing.

Part of the policy requires the school to have written concussion histories for athletes.

School business administrator Amy Tierney said the state has approved the school contract with food service provider Chartwells. The state initially rejected the contract because Chartwells offered the school incentives they had not originally asked for, including $150 for nutrition education and farmers’ markets.

“They didn’t like the wording but we set them straight,” Ms. Tierney said.

The contract runs until the end of June 2012 with two one-year extensions.

“It’s a tragedy,” she said and asked if a committee would be created to work with the food provider.